MORAL CRISIS, MORAL CHOICES

               "The darkest places in hell
               are reserved for those
               who  maintain their neutrality
               in times of moral crisis."
                        Dante, Divine Comedy
     It has been said many times that evil exists, or triumphs when good people do and say nothing. That time is here and now within our own community and throughout the nation. What choices people will make will be very telling of who they are and why they make these choices, and what the future of our country and indeed the world will be. It is that important, that striking.
     I can understand some people choosing Trump for that ridiculous and meaningless slogan of they want change. But what change? Change for the bad! And change without facts and details, without the infrastructure to run these changes properly will be bad change even if it had good intentions which I do not believe Trump had in the first place. But if change is what is wanted, let us see what change there will be.
     So the presumptive president to be (G-d forbid), would like a return, a change, to a world of older times and with their values and behavioral mores. Women should be objectified, seen as sexual objects, as breasts waiting to be groped and genitalia waiting to be attacked. They are to be worthy of nothing else, not even having the right to privacy in their own dressing room. It is a world where fathers are encouraged to look at their daughters and discuss their sexual status, their voluptuousness (shudder - a whole body shudder) and or nothing else.
     On the other hand, we have a candidate who grew up during hard times for women, when they had to fight for everything they had, to be 3x  better than men in their positions and for half the pay - and expected to be grateful for it all. This candidate worked and fought her way to everything she has and had. She is a strong and determined woman, able to play with the big boys on their own field and they do not like that, not at all.
     So let's see what has people so ticked off. She is a liar they say. So what? So are all of us at one time or another. We lie out of love, out of greater good, out of kindness and yes, out of nastiness and viciousness and cowardice and maliciousness. It is not a quality to boast of, but there it is and where has she lied - about her emails you say? Really? She has fessed up for whatever the crime was - not according to the FBI who said there was carelessness but no crime - and took responsibility. She has told the truth about her taxes, her health, her life is out there on display and now Trump wants to take her to task on speeches she made? Really? Was she not allowed to make some money for herself and her husband? What she says now is the right stuff about big business and certainly lightyears better than Trump!
     She is indicted for sticking up for and with her cheating husband. He cheated, not her, unlike the cheating of Trump done by himself. She stood by him, hoping that the facts were otherwise, a denial of truth which we all do at bad times and then for whatever reason she stuck with him and look, now they are best friends and that was her decision, not ours and she is not responsible for the peccadillos of her husband On the other hand, Trump is responsible for his own misdeeds  and cheating and his open zipper and filthy mouth and mind. And it does not seem that there has been any change in him over the years, other than getting worse and even more debased.
     So, moral crisis, moral choice. Is this the change you want? Is this the change we need? Is this the steady hand at the tiller that we need? is this the one we can present to the world with pride and confidence or is this the one that world markets tumble at the least sign that he could be elected, the one at whom the world leaders shudder with horror, that is other than Putin and assorted dictators who just love being his idols!
     Who has the dignity? Who has the knowledge? Who has lied about his business acumen? About his business disasters? About his not paying taxes and just try to run a country with no income and ladies and gentlemen, that comes from taxes, like it or not. Do you wish a country where there is no moral backbone, where children are allowed to go hungry, where education is denied to some and care for others, where women have no control over their own bodies and remember - if one can be told you cannot terminate a pregnancy for ANY reason, then that same government can also force women to HAVE babies - ahh, Lebensraum and Hitlerian philosophy once more.
     Do not buy his immoral statements and intimations that only a certain class of people go hungry or are needy or are caught in a bad situation. We should be proud that we have a  safety net and one never knows when it will be needed. You know, in the Great Recession, there were many cases of "hidden hunger" within the Jewish community, where once well to do families lost it all and the children and  adults were hungry. Collections  were taken up and donations made, food distributed but there is no guarantee that one will never need that safety net but according to Trump it will not be there.
     No one is prefect and I know we are all saying that both candidates are flawed. Well, guess what? Show me a candidate from the time of the founding of this country that there was not a flaw in the presidential candidates! We make up stories for ourselves and we lose our way.
     Dante spoke of the fact that "the straightforward pathway had been lost" and thus we were lost or are lost now for we have lost our way in the thicket of lies and evasions, of blindness and falsehoods. If we continue along this crooked path, then once again, we turn to Dante for a hint of what is to come - "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
     No one is perfect. No one - hey, not even me!! But there is a moral choice to be made in this time of moral crisis. Who will better represent us? Who will the leaders of the world trust and respect? Who has a filthy mouth and mind, if indeed that mind is intact - CAT scan anyone ? Who has the experience, the strength of character, the knowledge, the determination, the tenacity to follow it through and whose party leaders have deserted him in droves? I am sorry, but I see no redeeming qualities about this man and in fact, he gets worse with every passing day. Hillary Clinton is not perfect but she is bright and tenacious with stamina and experience and smart, very smart.
     Moral crisis, moral choice.
  Do you choose the morally deficient, sexually debased and perverted, know nothing, dictator admiring, consummate liar, failed businessman, infant in a man's body or do you choose a woman who has yes, made some mistakes, as we all do in the course of life but who learned from them and who has shown herself to be a strong and determined person who will serve us well?
     And do not vote third party or not vote at all for those ways are the ways to give a vote to Trump and a woosey way out of taking a moral stand. Johnson is a fool, just about as bad as Palin and Jill Stein appears to be a hateful bigot who knows not very much.
      Moral crisis, moral choice.